My horse betting farce

Somebody up there doesn’t like me much at the moment. The bank insists that two cash machines which failed to deliver me £400 actually did and is charging me accordingly; Mrs Oakley’s entire cooking range has to be expensively renewed because no one will replace a cracked induction hob; and when our sewage pipe blocked the other evening I couldn’t contact the drain company because the village’s telecoms chose that hour to go offline.

‘Those who don’t change their minds get stuck in a rut. You have to be open-minded in this game’

So it continued at Newmarket last Saturday. On a visit to Ralph Beckett’s Kimpton Down yard three days before the Arc, which he won with Bluestocking, I had never seen so many beautifully bred horses bursting with health. I was much taken by Stanhope Gardens, a chestnut colt by Ghaiyyath.

On Saturday, Ralph’s Starzintheireyes had won the race before, the Group 3 Zetland Stakes, under a skilful ride from Rossa Ryan wearing a plaster covering four stitches on his cheekbone. The horse owed his jockey that one: it was Starzintheireyes who had headbutted him on the gallops. In the Group 3 Emirates Autumn Stakes I therefore doubled my stake on Stanhope Gardens against the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite Delacroix. After a battle through the last two furlongs, he and Rossa went down a neck with Delacroix, ridden by Ryan Moore, enjoying the advantage of the rail.

The Newmarket autumn trials for two-year-olds tend to become battles between the two great racing empires of Coolmore and Godolphin. In the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes for Godolphin Charlie Appleby sent out Shadow of Light and Ancient Truth while Aidan O’Brien fielded Expanded and Rock of Cashel for Coolmore. Looking for value, I went for a 1-2 Exacta with the Godolphin horses. Needless to say, that was undone as Expanded, in a finish of two necks, just split the Newmarket-trained pair, with Ancient Truth coming third.